We hit the road again this week, on an unusual night of the week, with DAZN TV for some reason thinking this might be a good match for featuring - let’s see how that works out!
After the frozen weather put paid to our game at Roots Hall on Saturday (and most of the rest of the programme in the lower leagues) we have had time to rest up and hopefully also look to bring in a few players to replace those who have left the building. One of only two National League games to survive the weather on Saturday was at the Jakemans Community Stadium when our hosts on Wednesday played out a 2-2 draw with Ebbsfleet with two former Shrimpers, Cosgrave and Moncur, scoring Fleet's goals.
It will be a first visit to the new stadium for the Blues as last time we played them, 20 years ago almost to the day, they were based at York Street. We lost 2-0 on that occasion with both Kevin Maher and Mark Bentley starting in midfield for us. They will have happier memories from the season before when we won 2-0 and Benno scored one of the goals (Maher also started that game). For those who are worried about such things, and to open up a long lived SZ can of worms, Flavs started in goal when we won and Bart when we lost!
The Pilgrims are now managed by a familiar face, Graham Coughlan. Cougho took over in November last year with Boston in 23rd place and 7 points from safety in the National League. He managed a win in his first game (against Braintree) but hasn't had a league win since then - although they have had two wins in the FA Trophy. They currently sit *checks notes* in 23rd place, 7 points from safety, so you could say his appointment hasn't actually been the roaring success they might have hoped for.
They have one ex-Shrimper in Dan Mooney in their squad - at least I think he is - he hasn't featured in recent games and Coughlan said in an interview in December "I wouldn't be able to pick him out in a line up" which indicates that all may not be well with Dan and I doubt we'll be seeing him featuring on Wednesday night.
Formwise, ours is a lot better than theirs - although we did have Pepple playing for us in the last 6 games and we all know what's happened there.
Since our last game against Southport we have lost 3 of our 4 loanees (Jeacock, Moncur and Pepple) and with a longer term injury to Crowther and potential illness in the squad we could be a bit thin on the ground on Wednesday night. Kev seemed to indicate that the fourth of the loanees, James Golding, is likely to extend to the end of the season and there must also be the possibility of Jack Wood returning from a pretty pointless winter sojourn on the English Riviera as his opportunities to play have been somewhat limited. He came off the bench after 68 minutes on Saturday, but surely with our current lack of bodies the loan won't be extended.
We have at least got a few days to bolster the squad, hopefully there is a date in the diary for the new transfer committee to meet before Wednesday night, I'm sure the data is being crunched as we speak and several carrier pigeons are on their way to Roots Hall bearing match reports from John Still's army of scouts from this weekend.
So who would you choose to start on Wednesday evening and what do you predict the result will be?
After the frozen weather put paid to our game at Roots Hall on Saturday (and most of the rest of the programme in the lower leagues) we have had time to rest up and hopefully also look to bring in a few players to replace those who have left the building. One of only two National League games to survive the weather on Saturday was at the Jakemans Community Stadium when our hosts on Wednesday played out a 2-2 draw with Ebbsfleet with two former Shrimpers, Cosgrave and Moncur, scoring Fleet's goals.
It will be a first visit to the new stadium for the Blues as last time we played them, 20 years ago almost to the day, they were based at York Street. We lost 2-0 on that occasion with both Kevin Maher and Mark Bentley starting in midfield for us. They will have happier memories from the season before when we won 2-0 and Benno scored one of the goals (Maher also started that game). For those who are worried about such things, and to open up a long lived SZ can of worms, Flavs started in goal when we won and Bart when we lost!
The Pilgrims are now managed by a familiar face, Graham Coughlan. Cougho took over in November last year with Boston in 23rd place and 7 points from safety in the National League. He managed a win in his first game (against Braintree) but hasn't had a league win since then - although they have had two wins in the FA Trophy. They currently sit *checks notes* in 23rd place, 7 points from safety, so you could say his appointment hasn't actually been the roaring success they might have hoped for.
They have one ex-Shrimper in Dan Mooney in their squad - at least I think he is - he hasn't featured in recent games and Coughlan said in an interview in December "I wouldn't be able to pick him out in a line up" which indicates that all may not be well with Dan and I doubt we'll be seeing him featuring on Wednesday night.
Formwise, ours is a lot better than theirs - although we did have Pepple playing for us in the last 6 games and we all know what's happened there.
Since our last game against Southport we have lost 3 of our 4 loanees (Jeacock, Moncur and Pepple) and with a longer term injury to Crowther and potential illness in the squad we could be a bit thin on the ground on Wednesday night. Kev seemed to indicate that the fourth of the loanees, James Golding, is likely to extend to the end of the season and there must also be the possibility of Jack Wood returning from a pretty pointless winter sojourn on the English Riviera as his opportunities to play have been somewhat limited. He came off the bench after 68 minutes on Saturday, but surely with our current lack of bodies the loan won't be extended.
We have at least got a few days to bolster the squad, hopefully there is a date in the diary for the new transfer committee to meet before Wednesday night, I'm sure the data is being crunched as we speak and several carrier pigeons are on their way to Roots Hall bearing match reports from John Still's army of scouts from this weekend.
So who would you choose to start on Wednesday evening and what do you predict the result will be?
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